West Bridge Journals

‘Echo on the Suwannee’

Prologue:
Early November 1991 near the Suwannee River in Hamilton County Florida.
He hunted this land all his life and knew every road, trail and landmark and while he was sitting in his deer stand he heard the cry for help echoing off the Ole Suwannee River. Keith sat real still listening hard to see if his ears were telling him the truth, then he heard it again. He was only about 50 yards from the river, and the echo made it hard to pin point where it came from. But there it was again, “Please stop, somebody help me!”
Climbing down from the stand, he eased down to the river bank. Listening hard for any sound he decided to go down river thinking that it may have come from that direction. About 150 yards later he saw movement on a rocky cliff ahead of him. Years of hunting taught him how to move silently through the woods and he did so now moving deeper inland to approach the cliff from the north. He heard men voices now and a young woman whimpering. Keith got down on his knees in the canopy forest and slowly crawled closer to the sounds. At ground level, the air was hot, damp and very still even in November. It was quite dark with the sunlight being absorbed by the triple canopy above him. His hunter’s instincts were working at full mental capacity as he eased forward to a clump of palmettos.
He slowly looked over the top of the bushes and saw a man sitting with his back to a tree with a gun in his hand. Another man was on his knees holding the arms of a young girl on the ground. He was laughing while another man was straddle the girl. The girl’s pleas for the man to let her go only made them laugh harder.
The girl turned her head in Keith’s direction. He dropped his head and thought, “I know that girl!” For a few seconds he didn’t know what to do. He had no law enforcement experience, nor was he ever in the military, and in fact had never been in a fight of any kind. A quiet and peaceful man all his life he was shaking with fear. He looked up again and saw what was about to happen to the girl. He knew that he could never let that happen. His first thought was to warn the man that he would shoot if he didn’t get off the girl, but anger took over and he lifted his rifle and aimed at the man’s head that was straddle the girl and pulled the trigger.